The 2014 World Champion San Francisco Giants: Where Are They Now?
Photo by Doug Pensinger (Getty Images)
It has been almost nine years since the San Francisco Giants won the 2014 World Series against the Kansas City Royals. Since then, the Giants have not been back to the Fall Classic and have failed to make it past the second round of the postseason. However, the 2014 Giants were a sleeping giant force to be reckoned with that consisted of multiple future Hall of Famers and players from the team’s previous two World Series wins in 2010 and 2012.
In baseball, nine years is a long time and many of the 2014 Giants have since retired or have long moved away from their careers in the Bay Area to different cities. Let’s look at where some of these world champions are today.
Photo by H. Darr Beiser
Brandon Belt
The Giants’ former first baseman, who spent his first 12 seasons in the major leagues with San Francisco, is still an active infielder for the Toronto Blue Jays. In the 2014 World Series, he played all seven games on his way to eight hits and a .308 batting average.
Now in his 13th season and on a brand-new team, Belt has produced more runs for the Blue Jays in the first half of this year (26) than he did for the entirety of last season with the Giants (25).
Photo by Christopher Hanewinckel
Grégor Blanco
Blanco joined the Giants in 2012 after coming over from the team he would win it all against in 2014, the Kansas City Royals. The outfielder was a run factory for the Giants in the series, crossing the plate six total times and hitting one of San Francisco’s only two home runs over all seven games.
In 2018, Blanco saw his last action in the MLB after the Giants purchased his contract from the Arizona Diamondbacks. He officially retired in 2020 and is now a Senior Director of Baseball Operations in the MLB office.
Photo by Ezra Shaw (Getty Images)
Brandon Crawford
Northern California’s very own Brandon Crawford has been with the San Francisco Giants as their prized shortstop for over a decade. After joining the team in 2011 as a rookie, Crawford has racked up three All-Star selections, four Golden Gloves, a Silver Slugger, two Wilson Defensive Player of the Year awards, and helped the franchise win two of its three titles in the city of San Francisco.
He remains a starter in the Giants’ infield as the only player left from the 2014 squad and is currently batting .219 in the 2023 season.
Photo by Jane Tyska
Hunter Pence
Pence spent the second half and end of his career with the San Francisco Giants. Coming over from the Philadelphia Phillies midway through the 2012 season, the right fielder immediately made an impact for the Giants helping them win it all later that October, and it continued into his first full year with them in 2013 where he hit a career-high 27 home runs.
Barring a stellar performance from the Giants’ ace pitcher, Pence had a case for World Series MVP in 2014 for leading the winning team in hits (12) and hitting that second of two total home runs. In 2020 the 4x All-Star announced his retirement, and in 2022, he settled back in San Francisco as a color analyst for NBC Sports Bay Area.
Photo by Matt Slocum (AP Photo)
Pablo Sandoval
The beloved third baseman, known by fans everywhere as “Kung Fu Panda,” was on all three of San Francisco’s 2010, 2012, and 2014 World Series championship-winning rosters. In the 2012 sweep victory over the Detroit Tigers, Sandoval won World Series MVP for leading the Giants in hits (8), batting average (.500), and home runs (3). In the 2014 World Series, he proved to be a lineup necessity again after co-leading the team in at-bats (28) and hits (12).
Following his third championship, Panda jumped over to Boston in 2015 until he would come back to San Francisco in the middle of the 2017 season. In 2021, although not on the playoff roster, Sandoval received his fourth World Series championship ring with the Atlanta Braves. In February of 2022, Sandoval joined the Liga Mexicana de Béisbol (Mexican League) and was most recently a member of the Olmecas de Tabasco before being released earlier this year. He remains a free agent in the MLB.
Photo via Associated Press
Madison Bumgarner
It would be impossible to look into the lives of the champions of 2014 and not bring up the World Series MVP, Madison Bumgarner. “MadBum” was one of the most feared starting pitchers of the early 2010s. He was a starter on all 2010, 2012, and 2014 Giants winning rosters and in 2014 especially, the Giants’ ace cemented his future spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame. In the series, he appeared in three games, started two, struck out 17 batters, and only allowed one run over 21 total innings pitched. In the months following the win, Bumgarner also became the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year for 2014 and the 2014 AP Athlete of the Year.
After the 2019 season, Bumgarner left San Francisco, where he had been his whole career, to start his next chapter with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Following a nowhere-near-as-flashy but still respectable time with the D-Backs, the team released him in April of this year following a rough 0-3 start. If this is the end for the 3x world champion and 4x All-Star, Bumgarner will now await his election into Cooperstown.
